PRING

RINCE VON BÜLOW had scarcely assumed his functions as ambassador from Emperor William to King Victor Immanuel when a concerted effort was made by certain radical elements in Rome to make life at the Quirinal impossible for the former imperial chancellor. These intrigues are traced by the Berlin Tageszeitung to agents of the London foreign office. Prince von Bülow appears to the London News to have bent his energies less to the persuasion of the Italians to come out on the side of Germany than to a defeat of the plan to involve them with the allies. The Prince is widely known in Italian society, where his wife has many influential relatives. He knows Italy well. His love for her is deep-rooted and sincere. Unfortunately for his plans, the new Italian foreign minister, Baron Sydney Sonnino, is half English through his mother. The Baron is said to cherish for England the same degree of sympathy the Prince cherishes for Italy. The result is a diplomatic duel on which for the moment the most critical issues in world politics depend, or so the European dailies affect to think. Organs of official opinion in Berlin have for some weeks praised Italy for her strict neutrality and advised her to persist in it.

Premier Salandra has just been fortunate enough to win a vote of confidence from the deputies in Rome, and, since he professes the strictest neutrality, the Norddeutsche Zeitung predicts that British efforts to involve Italy must fail.

Immediate Future of Italy as a Neutral.

SALANDRA, the Italian premier, remains an instru

ment in the hands of the inscrutable Signor Giolitti, who, all foreign dailies agree, will decide the attitude of his country to the war. "Germany never had any illusions," we find the Berlin Tag saying. "She knew that the whole triple entente would be against her in the event of war, while she could count on the aid

of Austria only. Italy's fulfillment of her pledges to the Triplice consisted in her remaining loyally neutral. Nothing more could be expected from her." Two new factors have arisen to delay the entry of Italy into the war, according to the London Post. One of these is the arrival of cold weather. The other is the appearance of cholera in Austria-Hungary. The Italian military authorities do not object to heat-witness the fighting in Cyrenaica with a tropical sun blazing. They shrink from cold and snow. Especially do they dread the prospect of cholera. Meanwhile Premier Salandra, in view of recent indiscretions, has sent a circular to the prefects calling the attention of editors to the law relative to promulgation of military secrets. News of the movements of Italian troops is rigidly censored.

Italy Under the Salandra Ministry.

FOREIGN policy, the army and finance must occupy the reconstructed Salandra ministry in Rome to the exclusion of other issues, says the Giornale d'Italia, in close touch with Baron Sonnino. Diplomacy affords Italy just now its most complex problem since the Risorgimento, it adds. As for the army, Italy desires a perfectly efficient fighting force in the shortest possible time. The normal methods of finance are not adapted to the present extraordinary situation. The anticlerical Messaggero, while objecting to a conservative element in the reconstructed ministry, admits that "this is not the time to raise domestic questions." The Popolo Romano approves of the appointment of Baron Sonnino as foreign minister because of his firmness. The clerical Corriere d'Italia expresses confidence in the cabinet, especially in Salandra, whose policy of neutrality will, it thinks, be continued. The Corriere della Sera affirms that Italy still counts in Europe if only because she is considered as a sword whose weight may be felt in the balance where the destinies of nations are weighed.

as they are. Thus the nationalist journal, the Idea Nazionale, deplores the appointment of Baron Sonnino as foreign minister on the ground of his lack of poetry and of lyrical enthusiasm and because of his temperament generally, which disqualifies him from comprehending the Italian world. However, this paper promises support even of Sonnino if he will give Italy the national war which is so necessary. It is thought significant that the Sonnino organ, the Giornale d'Italia, is pointing to the rapid diffusion of German influences in Italy in the shape of German advertizements, German "shop-walkers," books, newspapers, governesses (of whom Padua alone has a hundred), waiters and hotel keepers. The Lakes of Garda and Capri are almost German colonies. These are said, too, in the antiGerman papers, to be the advance-guard of Prince von Bülow, who has all sorts of schemes to render Italy powerless. The result is an outbreak of activity among radicals in Rome, led by the clever Marchese de Viti. They hold meetings often to keep up the agitation in favor of intervention in the European conflict. The anti-clericals are charging the Pope with a pronounced pro-Germanism, altho this is denied by the organ of the Vatican. A significant fact is the appointment of a general recently as minister of war in succession to a civilian.

German Views Contested in Italy.

doning the Balkan cause at the outbreak of the first Balkan war, according to the Messaggero. She made a mistake again in opposing a Servian port on the Adriatic. Neither should Italy have opposed Greek claims to Epirus and the Aegean Islands. The recognition of those aspirations is a necessary condition without which the Balkan league can not be reformed because otherwise Greece and Servia can not be induced to compensate Bulgaria and thus gain her adhesion. Moreover, if Italy proposes to reconstruct the Balkan league, she must act with Servia in conquering Bosnia and Herzegovina and in securing an outlet on the Adriatic from Austria. Italy must also appear as the sincere and disinterested champion of the principle of nationality. This she can not do as long as she lays claim to the Dalmatian coast, which is overwhelmingly Slav, and as long as she maintains her doubtful conduct regarding the isles of the Aegean. She could not put herself at the head of the Balkan league recomposed on a national basis if she violated the principle of Slav and Greek nationality. The whole. article is deemed in Europe a serious indication of Italian intervention and of the policy behind it.

Prince von Bülow at the Crisis of His Career.

ALL Europe watches with interest at this moment the

duel of a diplomatic kind which 'is waged by Prince von Bülow in behalf of Germany and of Baron Son

pressed by Berlin assertions that Germany is not responsible for the outbreak of war in Europe. Thus the Tribuna, in close touch with diplomatic circles, denies the allegations on this subject of the German professors and intellectuals. "Our denial," it adds, "is strictly connected with Italy's honor because, had Germany been attacked, instead of being the aggressor, Italy would have been bound by treaty to support her at any cost. She did not do so because a case under the treaty of alliance had not arisen." The Italian organ next comments upon the weakness it detects in the argument advanced by the German professors and concludes: "German policy had imposed for years upon Europe the dilemma of recognizing a German hegemony or of having war." This was said at the height of the agitation for war upon Austria in behalf of the union with Italy of the provinces still "unredeemed" from the Hapsburgs. What will finally decide Italy, according to the Messaggero, inspired by the influential Signor Bissolati, deputy for the Quirinal division of Rome, may be defined as her need of closer union with the states of the Balkans. The Balkan peoples, in order to give stability to their league, require the help of a If the Flanders floods become any worse, Flanders will be a great place for a naval battle.-N. Y. American.

Probably every soldier engaged in the European war has a desire to live long enough to find out what he is fighting for.-Toledo Blade.

"Unless China is Christianized," declares Miss Hle Ding Lin, "she will lead the rest of the world to paganism." Some parts of the rest of the world can dispense with a guide.-Springfield Republican.

nino may be passes conjecture in the foreign press. The government in Rome dreads most of all, affirms the Paris Figaro, a peace from which it would be excluded—that is, a treaty ending the war without recognition of Italian claims in southern Europe. If Italy remains a neutral to the end, she will not be recognized as an important factor in the settlement by the allies. Notice to that effect has been served upon the Salandra ministry by such organs as the London Post. German organs like the Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, inspired officially, assure Italy that she will participate in the "settlement" whether she comes in as a belligerent or not. French papers tend to the idea that Italy is at last convinced that the allies must win. She was not so sure of that at first. The desperation of the pass to which Germany has been reduced, according to the Matin, is revealed by the despatch of Prince von Bülow to Rome. He comes, it says, too late. Nevertheless, concedes the London News, there are factors of the utmost importance on the side of Germany still. The outcome of the situation in Rome is the most critical factor in the struggle against Germany on its diplomatic side.

The unspeakable Turk should begin at once to learn how to say "enough" in several languages.-Toledo Blade.

Some notion of the harmony with which Gens. Joffre and French work together may be gained from the following discovery:

JOF FRE:

: FRENCH:

That is, they work together, either offensively or defensively. -St. Louis Post Dispatch.

+

T

HREE Americans have been brought out prominently before the whole world by the situation in Europe - three Americans and two of these Ohioans. They are Myron T. Herrick, Brand Whitlock and Herbert Clarke Hoover. The first monument the Belgians build after the war is over, says Will Irwin, will be one to Brand Whitlock, our minister to Belgium, formerly mayor of Toledo. He has had a very difficult task to perform and he has performed it with splendid efficiency and devotion, even to the extent at times of living on black bread. Mr. Hoover, the chairman of the American commission in London that has had charge of the relief work, first for the fleeing American refugees and then for the starving Belgians, has shown himself a first-class organizer and administrator. With Hoover handling the London end of the Belgian relief work and Whitlock handling the Belgian end, they have achieved wonders, and, in consequence, when the American flag is seen nowadays in the streets of Brussels or Antwerp or any other Belgian city, the people spontaneously take off their hats.

Myron T. Herrick, ex-Ambassador to France, ex-Governor of Ohio, has won equally enthusiastic praise by the way he has handled a difficult situation in France. "He won the hearts of the people of Paris," says ex-Minister Pichon, in the Petit Journal. There are other ambassadors and ministers in Europe who have earned the praise of their countrymen-Gerard in Berlin, Van Dyke in Holland, Walter H. Page in London, Thomas Nelson Page in Rome, Morgenthau in Constantinople, Penfield in Vienna. Only one of these men had had experience in diplomatic situations, but they all seem to have acquitted themselves creditably under exceptionally trying circumstances. None of them, however, seems to have made such a conspicuous success as has been achieved by Herrick and Whitlock. If the latter does not look out he will be canonized before he gets out of Belgium, and as for Herrick, before he left Paris last month some of the French newspapers were trying to nominate him for President of the United States. If he had stayed a month longer they might have gone ahead and elected him without waiting

As a matter of fact, much more wonderful things have happened than the nomination of Herrick for the Presidency. His "boom" may have started in Paris but it has not ended there. Cleveland, where his home is, took it up several weeks ago and began to arrange for a reception to help it on as soon as it was known when he was to return. The Washington Post takes the movement very seriously. It remarks: "Distinguished as he is as a man of remarkable ability in business affairs, Mr. Herrick would command at once, if nominated, the confidence and support of the business interests of the United States in the largest measure. He, possibly, of all the men named, is the best-equipped by experience, practice, and knowledge of affairs in a more varied sense and in a broader sphere of action." "Republican lightning," observes that great organ of Democracy, the N. Y. World, "might flash further and strike worse."

Nor is this the first time that Myron T. Herrick has been rather conspicuously mentioned for the highest position in our government. After his election as governor of Ohio, in 1903, by the largest majority given to any man since the days of the Civil War114,000-he was looked upon as a possible or even probable successor to McKinley in the White House. Unfortunately he

for governor

a

second time, at a period when the liquor question came to the front and when the revolt against George B. Cox had reached its climax. Herrick was too closely identified with Cox for his own political health, and as a result he was defeated by a plurality of 43,000. That and the meteoric career of Roosevelt ended all further talk of Herrick at that time for President. He vanished from the political arena, tho President Roosevelt tried to induce him to accept the ambassadorship to Italy and President Taft tried later to entice him into his cabinet as secretary of the treasury. Herrick good-naturedly refused all such offers and resumed his highly successful financial career. Two years ago, however, he accepted the post of ambassador to France because he had by that time developed a new ambition. He had become greatly interested in the subject of farm finance

Experience in both France and Germany, he went on to say, proved that the development of scientific farming has been largely due to the facility with which farmers can obtain funds for the purpose of financing improvements. Our railway securities, our industrial securities, our municipal securities, and now our commercial paper have been given a negotiable value that enables them to circulate freely and to be readily accepted as security for loans. Mortgages, and especially farmmortgages, are the only form of security that retains its primitive immobility. All this Mr. Herrick saw very clearly several years ago. The subject has been up very prominently in Congress since then and President Wilson has had a commission traveling in Europe to obtain data for the establishment of a new system of farm-banks. It has come to be recognized, in other words, as Herrick recognized years ago, that the greatest defects in our agriculture are due to our financial institutions rather than to the farmers themselves. Herrick has been a banker and financier nearly all his life, and he saw how the farmer was being handicapped all along the line. It was the sense of this among the farmers of the

West that produced the Greenback movement, the Farmers' Alliance movement, the Populist movement and even the Free-Silver movement. They were all efforts more or less blind to secure a square deal for the farmers of the country. This fact has been partly recognized in the new federal reserve system. It will not be completely recognized until a system of rural banking has been installed that gives the American farmer an equal chance with the French and German peasants. "We cannot hope," says Mr. Herrick, "for an increase in the production of food-stuffs in this country to approximate the increase in consumption unless the deserving tiller of the soil can be supplied with the funds he needs at low rates and for long periods. It is as necessary for the farmer to have cheap money as it is for the railroad builder or the manufacturer." He is so immersed in the subject that he has written a book on it. It is entitled "Rural Credits" and has just been published by the Appleton Company.

Now anyone can see with half an eye that in an issue of this sort there are tremendous political as well as economic possibilities. It is of vital interest not only to the farmers as a class but to everybody to whom the high cost of living is a matter of consequence. There is no reason that we know of for supposing that Herrick has taken it up with a view to the political side, or, indeed, that he has any political ambitions left. His first utterance on returning to this country last month was to disown the presidential "boom" already started by that time and to stigmatize it as "nonsense." He added, a little impatiently, that whatever credit he might have earned by his services in France he does not propose to capitalize. His present prominence before the country is obviously a result of accident rather than of scheming on his part. In the ordinary course of events, his going to France would have removed him from the stream of political affairs instead of plunging him into the spotlight as it has.

Myron T. Herrick's interest in farms and farmers is not, moreover, an accident. He was raised on a farm in Lorain county, Ohio, where he was born sixty years ago. He went to college at Oberlin and later at the Ohio Wesleyan, but had to earn money as he was going through college, and he did it by tramping around from one farm to another selling dinner-bells and, for a time, lightning-rods. He taught school and studied law and was admitted to the bar, but fate intended him for a financier. A lucky land speculation in Cleveland gave him a start, and his skill in taking hold of two or three moribund financial institutions and putting them on their feet

Copyright, Harris & Ewing

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gave him a reputation that in the course of a few years made him sought after by large banking concerns. He became secretary and treasurer of the Society for Savings, he organized the Euclid Avenue National Bank, he linked up various streaks of rust into the Wheeling and Lake Erie Railway, he organized the "oatmeal trust," and in the course of time he succeeded Samuel Mather as president of the Society for Savings and was elected president of the American Bankers' Association. At all times he was near enough to politics to see the wheels go around. He was an adviser of William McKinley when the latter was still a young aspirant for political honors. He was on fairly intimate terms with Mark Hanna long before the latter became a President-maker. delegate to a number of Republican national conventions, and in 1900 he

He was a

became a member of the National Republican Committee. The only offices he would accept during this time were one as member of the City Council, in which he served for two years, and the post of colonel on Governor McKinley's staff. He had refused, it is said, before accepting the ambassadorship to France, five diplomatic appointments and three appointments to Presidential cabinets.

Herrick at sixty looks as if he were in the very prime of life, tho his strenuous exertions in trying to take care of four embassies at once in Paris has told upon him somewhat. He makes a fine appearance. He is at least six feet tall, erect, well proportioned, with a splendid head, wavy hair which used to be brown but is now iron gray. He has a voice deeply musical, an engaging smile, strong but not coarse features, and altogether, in